Food or Fuel?

The UN summit in Rome on food production has pledged to halve the number of malnourished people in the world by 2015.
Delegates looked at various aspects including the production of bio-fuels.
Brazil claimed that because its bio-ethanol was produced from sugars it was not affecting the food chain. The US strongly defended its use of corn in the production of bio-fuels. Other countries undoubtedly defended their own stance on the use of bio-fuels, each claiming that it was in the interests of reducing global warming.
Many of the countries involved in the talks produce foods for export while their own citizens have to buy imported staple foods. Several African states produce tea and coffee for export but do not produce enough maize or rice to feed their own people.
Consumers in the developed countries - US, Europe, etc - import exotic, out-of-season foods to fuel the growing consumer demand for year-round supplies. Strawberries - once a totally seasonal fruit - come to the UK from as far afield as Spain, Turkey and even New Zealand just to fuel our growing consumerism. All of this adds to the carbon footprint of world-wide food production.
I have to admit that I am as guilty as the next man. I enjoy year-round oranges, tomatoes, peppers and other produce. All of these incur a price in carbon emissions and many of them mean that the farmers growing them have stopped growing the staple foods needed in their locality in favour of the export trade.
But I, along with the rest of the world, am going to have to change my ways. If we are to re-establish a sustainable world we will have to go back to eating the foods which are seasonally available.
For example: in the UK strawberries are a fruit which ripen in the summer. Oranges don't grow at all. When I was a lad bananas were a rarity and expensive - and because of this were much appreciated when they were available.
Food was much more home-grown.
Although this will make our diets less interesting it may also have some beneficial side-effects. Perhaps there will be less acutely obese people because food will be less abundant and therefore more carefully managed.
I'm rambling now, perhaps I should stop before I lose the whole meaning of this blog.
The meaning really is this. Eat to live - don't live to eat.